Immigration law author to testify in Senate

3/13/12 2:39 PM EDT

He couldn’t land the big fish, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer. But Sen. Chuck Schumer did get a lead author of Arizona's controversial immigration law to agree to testify at a Senate hearing next month.

The New York Democrat said that ex-state Sen. Russell Pearce — who helped draft the immigration statute that roiled the nation, then lost his seat in a recall election — will testify before the Senate’s immigration subcommittee on April 24. That’s a day before the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the Justice Department’s challenge of the law, SB 1070.

Schumer said he’s not giving up yet on getting Brewer to testify. She declined his invitation.

“The governor is the one who signed this bill into law,” Schumer said in a statement. “She shouldn’t leave the defense of it to others.”